A trimmer you!

Stop Eating When You Feel Full.
This is something most people won’t, or don't, do. Especially those that are in the 'clean plate' club and don't like to leave extra or left over food on their plates. Honestly, there is absolutely no shame in leaving that extra portion of food on your plate. When your tummy feels full, just push yourself away from the table and say "No More For Me Thanks!".

Eat Something Before You Go Grocery Shopping.
It recommended that you should eat something before you do any out of the house, or in house for that matter, activity that will burn calories. But, the main reason for going grocery shopping on a full stomach is that you will be less inclined to purchase all those fattening junk foods because you are not hungry so you aren't tempted by those types of food choices. You will be able to stay on track and only purchase those things you need from the grocery store instead of packing your cart with weight packing foods!

No Eating After 7p.m or 3 hours earlier before you go to bed.
This can be extremely difficult to do. Especially when most happy hours and free strolling happen after 7 o'clock! If this is the case, then you should eat before you go out for leisure hours. Most foods are not properly burned off if eaten after 7 o'clock p.m. So, it's best if you eat long before this time rolls around. However, you can eat something healthy such as fruits or vegetables minus the fatty dips if you really need to snack on something.

Eat In Moderation With Smaller Portions.
Take smaller portions of those calorie packed goodies. This way, you can still partake of all the wonderful eats without packing on all the extra pounds that go along with all those goodies. And remember too to balance out the bad foods, or those that are packed with sugars and carbohydrates, with good foods such as plain fruits and vegetables.

Take A Few Extra Walks or Longer Walks.
Walking is a terrific form of exercise, and can be a great cardiovascular work out in colder temperatures. If possible don’t drive or take any public transport if the distance is reasonable and that you are not in hurry to get something done. Enjoy Mother Nature, give yourself a break and relax your body and mind by taking leisure walks in the park and etc. I spend considerable time walking while I was in Beijing and Baoding last week. Even though I had hearty and more than usual heavy lunch or dinner, the long casual work particularly during the evening (its hot now though during mid noon since it is summer) helps to burn off the calories.

Interesting toilet signs

Here's for a change from health and wellness topics that I usually touch on this blog. How about the below toilet signs, interesting isn’t it.

The danger of vitamin supplement overdose

Even though vitamins are generally good for you, and you might have no cause to think that there may be dangers associated with using too much vitamin supplement or too many vitamins, there are certain dangers that might come along with using too much in general. If you are going to be responsible and truly understand what you are putting in your body, you should know that indeed too many vitamins and supplements might actually cause you problems. However, it is important to know how much you should be using at any given time. Dangerous results are real.

For instance, if you have too much vitamin D in your system, you might be causing yourself kidney damage. Vitamin D is generally good for you, so it is simply a matter of knowing your limits and knowing how much you should take. Don’t think that just because the supplement bottle says to take one a day that you will be better off or increase the results you want by taking more than that. That is simply not true – you will actually be causing yourself harm if you take more than you are supposed to be taking. Vitamin A commonly has the same results. Liver damage is very series and can cause many other problems, resulting in death.

If you are taking regular doses of niacin, you should know that you might experience flushing and stinging of the skin. This is natural, and a side effect that can be managed. However, if you take too much niacin, you might be causing heart and liver problems for yourself. Once again, it’s simply an issue of only taking the recommended amount.

Mineral supplements can be dangerous too. Even if you are just increasing some of your mineral intact by a modest amount, you might be finding that this is leading to imbalances in your body’s ability to use other types of minerals. If you take more than just 5 times the recommended doses of supplements such as iron, chromium, zinc or selenium, it can actually be a toxic event for your body. Almost every kind of vitamin and mineral can end up being toxic if you take too much.
Therefore, you should know that while vitamins and supplements are generally good for you, there are many times that these could actually become harmful, especially if you take more than is recommended to take during the day. For those reasons, you should simply be careful to only take what is recommended each day, and not more.

2 Eggs or a Pop Tart?

An interesting article by James LaValle.

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN

An egg has approximately 200 mg of cholesterol, and frying or scrambling it can up the cholesterol to approximately 245 mg. According to Kellogg's, a Blueberry Pop Tart contains no cholesterol, but it does have 39.8 g of carbohydrates - almost half of them from pure sugar. So which is a healthier breakfast - an egg or a Pop Tart?
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says you should eat less than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol each day. That's because "cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease." Not to mention "the higher your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for developing heart disease or having a heart attack." So if the egg breakfast has more cholesterol, you might think it's the wrong choice. But you'd be wrong. The egg breakfast wins out over the Pop Tart.
You see, it's not the amount of cholesterol you have in your blood that puts you at risk, but the form in which it's found. Processed foods that are high in sugar can contribute to inflammation and increase the volume of free radical byproducts from metabolism. This can end up increasing the amount of blood cholesterol found in its "oxidized" form, the form your body can't use to build cells and create sex hormones. It's "oxidized" cholesterol that's deposited on the walls of your blood vessels and increases your risk of a heart attack.
It may be counterintuitive. But eating a food that's a little higher in dietary cholesterol but doesn't spike your blood sugar levels and create inflammation is sometimes actually healthier, even if you have "high cholesterol."

[Ed. Note: James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN, is founder of the
LaValle Metabolic Institute, a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies, and the author of 13 books on healthy lifestyles and integrative care.}

Does stress cause acne?

Stress is not a direct cause of acne but it is true that some types of stress can cause the body to produce a hormone called cortisol, which can irritate existing acne.

Anxiety and stress can lead to hormone imbalance and cause acne. Stress prevents digestion and messes up sebum production. Lowering stress levels may help to decrease oil production, and thus decrease the symptoms of acne.

Indirectly, some medication that we take to alleviate or control extreme stress or emotional problems like depression can be factors in the production of acne. In fact, some medicines have acne listed as a possible side effect.

Steps to become successful

• Planning is crucial and perhaps the most important step to your success. As the saying goes, failure to plan is in fact plan to fail. It is surprising that many people act on impulse and do things based on feelings rather than based on well thoughtout plans.

• Prepare yourself to change your views, habits and your thought patterns.
As I have indicated in my earlier blog, we need to be flexible with regards to carrying out actions to achieve our goals. If necessary go ahead to change the process, change our approach and path to achieving our goals.

• Only pursue tasks that are important. You must divide your needs from your wants – there is a fine line, so exercise discrimination.

• Watch your personal financial situation. Budget well and reduce spending.

• Surround yourself with people with a positive persona and those who are successful. Read books about people who have succeeded in life.

• Do not pretend to be who you are not. Be yourself and do not show off.

• Expand your horizon and be enthusiastic and ambitious.

• It is good to increase your income but it is even better to invest in assets that will make you wealthy.
• Prepare to work hard and make sacrifices.

Man's best friend

A 60 year old woman retiree,Wang Youqun were rescued after being knocked unconscious by a falling girder during the May 12 quake. She was trapped for 195 hours, surviving on rain water and interestingly it was reported that two dogs constanly kept her awake and keep her spirit up by licking on her face and lips that help to moisturize her. The bark of the dogs eventually alerted the rescuers who came to her aid. So I guess you know why it goes to say dog is man’s best friend.

Changing plans and ideas to achieve your goal

It is important to be flexible, to remain open to new ideas, inputs, feedback and thoughts in reaching your goals. If during the course of working towards your goal you come across new ideas or plans that seems worth considering, don’t hesitate to give it a thought though and evaluate it if necessary. Decide if the new plans or ideas fit into your current plan and discard or use it. You don’t have to stick to the original plan if the new plan or idea seems more viable and realistic in enabling you to achieve your goals. After all, your goal remains the same, just that the process or plan changes.We need to be flexible and adaptable to change to keep up with competition and the fact that situation changes as we work to achieve our goals.

Cancer prevention with Selenium

Medical researches are conducting experiment to validate the effect of vitamin E and Selenium on cancer prevention and treatment. There are findings and experimental results that indicate Selenium is effective in reducing certain risk of cancers. The scientific evidences pertaining to Selenium looks promising, so much so that the national cancer institute has begun more in-depth experiment and trials on large number of patients.

Scientists are discovering more and more about Selenium. For a start, there is scientific evidence that Selenium can reduce DNA damage caused by carcinogens. What’s even more interesting is that Selenium is known as powerful antioxidant and helps to reduce oxidative stress, a prime-triggering factor leading to cancer. Selenium exists in many forms, however only one form is known to contribute to cancer prevention and treatment. It is known as selenomethionine

So you have it there, pending the national cancer institute experiment that may take between 5 to seven years of data collection and analysis to complete, you can jumpstart to boost your body immune system against certain cancers (prostrate cancer) by checking with your nearest pharmacy for selenomethionine
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Prevention/SELECT

Sichuan earthquake

As I flip through the newspaper today it seems that there are more bad news by the day. Firstly, making the local headline is the catastrophic Sichuan earthquake that has killed more than 30 thousand people. The death toll seems to increase by the day and as of dated May 5th 2008 at the time of this writing at 2.33pm afternoon; Sichuan local provincial leader put the death and missing toll at over 70 thousand victims. Many countries have offered to help in the spirit of humanity.

This includes Japan, the 1st country allowed and quickly approved by China to send search and rescue team to help with the disaster humanitarian recovery efforts. Japan’s search and rescue efforts were quickly followed by Singapore, Russia and the nearby surrounding countries supports. There are talk and discussion regarding apart from the human loss, the economical impact and loss that could amount to billions of dollars. I believed money is not an issue to China, being one of the leading economic powerhouse with plenty of reserves, rather the major impact is on health risk posed by potential nuclear power plant leak, overflow river embankments that may cause major floods, decompose bodies which may result in serious contamination of water, and the overall social environmental impact. It is indeed unfortunate and untimely for such a great tragedy to occur so close to the Olympic event that China is looking forward to host.

Toxins and weight gain

Toxins can be classified into internal and external types. External toxins include chemical and heavy metal toxins. External toxins such as mercury, lead and arsenic, alcohol, drugs, pesticides, herbicides and food additive can cause serious health issues. Internal toxins comes from the by products of our metabolism.

Toxins lower thyroid hormone level and interfere with the body function thus slowing down metabolic function and cause weight gain. Toxins inhibit the normal operation of the cell mitochondria function and reduce the body ability to burn calories thus retarding and impacting the body ability to loss weight. Mitochondria are known as the energy factory of the cells and are responsible for burning calories and fats. Long exposure to toxins can cause the liver to become fatty and thus impairs its ability to remove toxins from the body. A fatty liver could result in more toxins discharge from it and in terms cause more damage to the cell mitochondria. Our metabolism slows down and we start to gain weight when toxins affect the mitochondria.

Toxins accumulated in the body can disrupt hormone balance such as leptin. Leptin is the hormone that communicates with our brain to control our appetite and make us feel full and toxins blocks these signals from the brain. Thus exposure to toxins can increase our appetite and cause us to over eat resulting in weight gain. Recent scientific research and findings indicates toxins affect and interferes with our body stress response and affect our eating behavior. Some people are known to over-eat when under duress.

Toxins, both internal and external accumulated in our body cause metabolism problem and thus contribute to obesity. A recent study involving mice bred with exposure to toxins show symptoms of accelerated weight gain. It should be noted though the effects of toxins varies between individuals and partly determine by that person’s genetic detoxification systems. Some people has greater tolerance for toxins and able to eliminate toxins more effectively than others. Nevertheless, getting rid of toxins is very important to our health.

Steps improve the body detoxification system and help weight loss
1) Minimize exposure to toxins
2) Sweat it out and sweat it off
3) Eat foods that help you to detoxify and avoid that that makes us toxics
4) Try herbal remedies that will help you to detoxify
5) Add supplements to support liver and help to detoxify.
Consider testing for detoxification and looking for toxins.

Super ants attacks computer

Finally the vicious fire ant has a new competitor in town. Apparently there is a new species of ants that preys on the fiery fire ants. These ants are called crazy raspberry ants. The downside is that these ants attacks computers and electronics, practically anything that comes across it path. See http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11793

Life time commitment

Attach photo of my pet dog Muffin, taken last year. Aint he cute isn’t he?
Muffin is healthy considered his age of well over 15 man-years; Due to age, Muffin no longer roam outside the apartment, he does his poo and pee in the toilet. He drinks plenty of water and sleeps almost three quarter of the day. He enjoys the pet tidbits I bought from the pet shop. It is important to take note though most of the dry pet tidbits and foods have high contents of salt so it is important to ensure ample supply of fresh drinking water.

Looking after a pet is not a hobby; it is a lifetime commitment. All too often we see people making decision on the spur of moment without considering the consequences. Parents bought puppies and kittens from pet shop for their children as gifts, only to be given away or worst still thrown out of the house when the pet becomes less cute when it grows up, when it starts to bite or scratch the furniture, pee or poo around the house.

Sure enough we have heard some motivational speaker talks about ready fire aim whereby we are encourage to take actions first and then evaluate the results and adjust our further actions accordingly. Not everything in life works with that way though, I mean that sort of philosophy though. We shouldn’t just get a puppy or a kitten from the pet shop without giving a thought as to whether we are really ready to be committed to take care of it for the rest of its life.

Benefits of Detoxing for Fitness and Health

It seems to be a little disgusting when you are detoxing or cleansing. Your body shows some signs that you have built up toxins. These toxins can affect your whole body fitness and health.
There are times that you feel sluggish and feel the stressful. Your body may experience continuous aching, diarrhea, constipation, and feeling of clumsiness. Rapid weight gain and the incapacity to lose the excess weight can also be signs of having toxins in the body.

Moreover, the toxins found in the body are found and stored on your fat cells.
A person may consume 70 trillion garbage cans for each cell. In detoxing your body and cleaning that unwanted garbage in your cells, you should pay attention on your elimination organs.
There are particular organs in your body that deal on cell waste management. These organs play a major role in the detoxing process for a fit and healthy body.
1. Your liver is the organ that recycles the unwanted chemicals in the body. It sorts out the toxins and places them to the organ for elimination during the process of circulation. The principal elimination organs will back up the liver on where these toxins will be stored and then eliminated.
2. The lymph glands also play an important role in eliminating the toxins. A network of tubing brings out the excess waste of the cells from the body and to the final eliminating organs. The appendix, thymus, tonsil, and spleens are major lymphatic glands that help the major organs of the body in cleansing and detoxing.
3. The kidneys help in the water management of the body. They are the ones that keep the good chemistry of the blood alkaline by eliminating the dissolved acid waste. You can help your kidney to function very well by drinking plenty of water. It is much better if you drink fresh alkaline juices and purified water. You may take ½ ounce of alkaline everyday to see positive results on your body weight.
4. The lungs are the organs that keep the blood air purified. They allow the oxygen to go directly to the bloodstream. It is also responsible in removing waste gases that are found in every cell of the body. Deep breathing and fresh air is very helpful in keeping the lungs healthy and free from toxins. If you are in the urban area, it is recommended that you find an oxygen rich area where you can perform deep breathing.
5. The colon is a solid waste management organ in your body. Medical practitioners have found many peolpe that may have an 80-pound mucus and rubber like solid waste that are found on the walls of the colon. Detoxing and cleaning the colon can be a real tough thing to do. However, having a free waste colon can certainly provide you good benefits of having a clean and healthy body.
If you are experiencing some signs of detoxification, you may try doing a regular walking exercise. Exercise is a good key in having a fit and healthy body. Many diet doctors also suggest that you drink plenty of lemon water. This is an effective way of maintaining a very good circulation and can increase the rate of detoxification inside the body.
There are other detoxification methods such as saunas, foot detoxification and spas..

Danger of fluoride in drinking water

Fluoride in water helps to prevent tooth decay? On the contrary it seems based on research studies and findings by medical experts. Fluoride could pose more harm to our tooth and gums.

Drinking water laden with fluoride has been link with Alzheimer’s disease. Apart from brain damage, fluoride could also cause kidney failures, thyroid complications and host of cancers. Fluoride accumulates in our body and is not easily excreted. Our natural body filtering systems such as the liver and kidneys are simply not design to effectively expel toxics such as fluoride.

The interesting catch is that Fluoride is a byproduct of aluminum production.
Toxic waste disposal is costly thus what better way to do deal with it than to convince health authorities that Fluoride is good to the teeth. Fluoride is so toxic than during the earlier days, it was only approved to be used as insecticide or rat poison. You read that correctly, yes, RAT POISION.

The interesting thing is that we were being told to drink at least 8 glass of water a day.
Not only would drinking too much water put strain to the kidney, drinking too much water laden with fluoride increases the danger exposure to toxic waste.
Moreover, drinking too much water can dilute the potassium levels in our blood, raising our stroke risk.

Since we must drink water no matter what happens, that leaves us with very few alternative to reduce the impact to our health. Detoxification is the no longer an option but a necessity if we value our health.


See http://thyroid.about.com/cs/toxicchemicalsan/a/flouride_2.htm
http://www.fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/
http://www.worldwidehealth.com/article.php?id=115

Pet animal and health

Do you keep any pets at home? Well, I have a pet Pomerian dog named Muffin. That's photographs of Muffin taken when he was 2 months old. He’s a really cute pet. Younger sis bought it when it was 2 months old, straight from the pet shop almost 15 years ago. Yes, you read it correctly; he’s been with the family for close to 15 years and those photos were taken 15 years ago; back then I was 29 years old and today I am past 43 years old. How time sure pass quickly isnt it?

It's hard to imagine that Muffin is almost 90 years old. Well, he’s less agile and less playful due to his age, much of his precious tooth are gone due to aging and he catches cold and cough easily. He’s still a healthy lot considered his age, and prayerfully and hopefully he will be around for another two years or more to come. Pomeranians are known to have life span between 14 to 17 years.

There are many health benefits to pet ownership. Researches and medical scientist found that children who have pet animals at home have stronger immune systems and less likely to fall sick easily. It seems that early childhood exposure to possible infections due to close contacts with pet animals boost the body immune system. Pet animal companionship can also help to reduce stress and improve one’s well being it seems.

Of course and certainly one must keep pet animals as clean and hygienic as possible. Regular annual pet animal appointment checkout with the veterinarian is a must not just to protect the children; pet animals wellbeing and health should be well taken care of too.
It is likely that if we have affection for animals, we will have compassion in our hearts.If we hate animals, how possible is it for us to love fellow mankind?

Menopause And Weight Gain

Talking to most women over 50 you will quickly find that menopause and weight gain are linked in their experience. It is very common to put on weight at this time and while some of this may be due to lifestyle changes, that does not explain why suddenly we develop a tendency to put on weight at different parts of the body, especially the abdomen, while any weight gained when we were younger tended to be centered on the hips.

The truth is that hormonal changes do have a part to play in this, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen which is responsible for the ovulation process. Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it almost certainly is the reason why our bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age store fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.

At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older, and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.

Hormone therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be surprised to hear that studies have shown that hormone therapy does not cause weight gain. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormone therapy but this is usually temporary and they have not gained any fat. Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. However, hormone therapy has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.

If you find that you are gaining weight around the menopause, there are several things you can do.

- Eat a healthy, low fat diet with plenty of fiber, avoiding sugar.

- Take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally drop. Work often becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.

- Maintain your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for legs.

- Accept the changes to the shape of your body. If you are not overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, that is fine.

Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program if you have any medical conditions or your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of the menopause and weight gain.

Overcoming challenges

If you want to overcome situation in life, you got to have will power to focus on your capabilities, on what you have and your ability to change the situation instead of focusing on all the shortcomings and what you don’t have or lacking. If you want to improve any situation in life, you got to do things there are constructive in nature and be focus on doing it. Assure yourself of your ability to face challenges by recollecting all your pass successes and believe in yourself that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

Take note of all the resources and skills that you have and those that you do not have but willing to develop and all actions you are prepare and willing to take to accomplish your goals. Influence yourself and get into a state of mind that you have what it takes to accomplish your goals and challenges.

Insecticide treatment on nutmeats?

Beware if you love almonds and all sorts of nutmeats.
It is alarming thought that the US FDA and EPA approved the regulation of propylene oxide PO for used as food fumigation for decades. Chances are that nuts such as almonds nutmeats and etc are subjected to the so-called chemical pasteurization using such technique. EPA has classified PO as a probable human carcinogen.
Propylene oxide was once used in racing fuel, but in 1993 the National Hot Rod Association banned its use because of cancer concerns.
And yet this poison is still used to pasteurize foods? EPA and FDA approved!
This is crazy indeed. PO is toxic and dangerous enough to be use as insecticide yet some foods are subjected to such chemical.

http://www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/hsg/hsg015.htm#SectionNumber:2.1http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/08/28/almond-action/

Natural sweetener

Okay so it seems that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame is bad for health. Processed sugar such as fructose corn syrup is one of the main culprit contributing to weight gain, diabetes and possibly high blood pressure. Life would indeed become miserable if we can’t really enjoy the sweet taste of sugar.
Is there any natural sweetener that has zero calories, zero carbohydrates and zero glycemic indexes without any serious side effects if taken long term and in high consumption? You bet the answer is yes;
There is this plant by the name Stevia. Stevia derived from a member of daisy family and is known to provide sweetening taste without any side effects. Please go to SteviaInfo.com for more info. Since Stevia is a natural sweetener with zero calories and carbohydrates, it could be effetively used as part of any healthy weight loss plan.

Green Tea Weight Loss Plan

Many people are now turning to inexpensive and natural green tea weight loss plans to help them in their weight control efforts. It is simple too. Green tea can be drunk like any other tea, usually without milk or sweeteners, or if you do not like the taste you can purchase green tea extract.

Research has shown that green tea helps to reduce weight by stimulating the body's thermogenesis process, which increases the expenditure of energy and the oxidization of fat in the body. Many compounds found in plants have this effect. The special thing about green tea is that it does not increase the heart rate, and is therefore believed to be safer than diet pills such as ephidrine that also work by stimulating thermogenesis.

A lot of people who are overweight have or are at risk of developing hypertension and other cardiovascular problems, so the fact that green tea does not put pressure on the heart makes it a good choice. Ephidrine is not usually recommended if you are in this group but green tea is considered a safe option. It means that you can gradually increase your exercise levels without increasing your risk of heart problems.

There are only two ways to lose weight: one way is by eating less (consuming fewer calories) and the other is by increasing expenditure of energy (using up more calories). Green tea works by increasing output and this can be by around 4%. Most scientists believe that this is caused by the high quantity of catechin that is in the tea and its extract.

Green tea has the added benefit of containing powerful antioxidants that may be beneficial to your health in many ways, strengthening the immune system and protecting against disease.

Keep in mind that green tea does contain caffeine so you should cut out coffee and other forms of tea while you are taking it. Decaffeinated green tea is not recommended because the chemical processes that are used to remove the caffeine may destroy the beneficial properties of the plant.

At the same time you will need to exercise control in what you eat. If you eat more to compensate for the calories that are burnt by the tea, you will not lose any weight. Keeping to the same calorific intake that you have now and taking green tea should result in gradual weight loss and better energy levels over a few weeks. You can of course increase the speed of this by reducing calorie consumption and/or increasing exercise.

Green tea is a simple, easy and inexpensive weight control aid that can easily be incorporated into any weight loss program. The choice of tea or extract offers something for everybody. Natural and safe, green tea weight loss should feature in your program if you want to keep the weight off permanently.

Dieting Mistakes

When it comes to dieting there are many mistakes that are made on a near daily basis. While there are many real profound mistakes that go along with the territory there are a few that seem to have far more profound and lasting implications than others. Hopefully by learning about these mistakes you can learn to avoid them in your own weight loss pursuits.

Perhaps the single largest mistake that dieters make is adopting an all or nothing attitude. These are the dieters that scour the pantry and the refrigerator removing anything that could be seen as a potential source of temptation. They embark on a dietary regimen that is nearly impossible to maintain and believe that all is lost the moment they stray from the strict guidelines of their diet.

While this may work for some in the short term, it sets them up for failure, frustration, and ill will towards the entire dieting process. The important thing when it comes to dieting is the goal. Your goal is to shed pounds. There are many ways in which this can be done that do not require starving yourself or punishing yourself in the process.

Another great mistake when it comes to dieting is selecting a diet plan where you eat the same thing every day. Despite our human need for structure and routine we tend to enjoy changing our lunch routine on occasion. Select a diet or new nutrition plan that allows you to enjoy a wide variety of foods rather than one that limits you to the same meal or meal selection day in and day out.

Other common mistakes include depriving yourself of everything you enjoy. One thing that we often forget is the importance of moderation. Fill up on servings of fruits and vegetables but allow yourself to enjoy the occasional indulgence for the sake of sanity. If you never allow yourself to enjoy a taste of chocolate, why on earth would you want to live forever? Seriously, do not forget to enjoy food for the sake of dieting. There is nothing wrong or sinful about enjoying food. The problem lies when you enjoy only the wrong sorts of foods.

You should also avoid the mistake of not setting goals. While you do not want to set goals that are impossible to achieve you should also avoid the opposite end of the spectrum, which involves having no goals at all. Those who set aggressive goals that are achievable will see the greatest degree of success. Making those goals public and asking for support is another thing that will help you achieve greater success. This is one reason the Weight Watchers program has enjoyed the phenomenal success is has.

The final mistake when it comes to dieting that is made all too often is giving up. We all have setbacks along the way. Even those who have achieved monumental dieting success have met with failure on the road. The end result however, for those who stick with the plan is a healthier body and that is something that is worth fighting for. Your goals may get side tracked but you can set new goals. You may have had a bad day or even a bad week when it comes to your dietary goals and plans. Do not let this defeat your desires to become a healthier you.


Learn to overcome those mistakes and move on from them. Let your failures teach you as much as your successes and you should be well on your way to the healthier person that you know is hiding inside. Whether you want to get rid of 10 pounds or 210 pounds the only way to achieve that goal and make it last is by dedicating yourself to the process of becoming a healthier person. A healthy person has healthy eating habits and doesn't starve him or herself. Nor does a healthy person binge on things that aren't healthy. Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you should be well on your to the success you seek.